Jigoku Shoujo – 04

Short Summary:
Kanno Junko is devastated by the loss of her dog Candy who has been the only remnant of her original family since her parents died. She struggles to move on until the veterinarian’s assistant Sekimoto calls her up. She tells Junko what really happened that day: the doctor got a call from his friends and let her dog die so that he could go have fun. While in a furious state, Junko overhears some girls talking about the Jigoku Tsushin. After she inputs the name, Enma Ai appears before her and gives the normal speech. Junko is ready to pull the string immediately, but Ai’s warning about Junko’s own soul being tormented stops her. The next morning, Junko gets the idea that maybe she could expose the doctor. She asks Sekimoto about evidence, but the two are unable to find anything while rummaging through the doctor’s files. Instead, they are caught snooping by none other than the doctor himself, who challenges them to find evidence, then displays his cruel feelings towards the dogs. After being kicked out, Junko pulls the string. During the drive home, the doctor gets into an accident and wakes up behind bars in a hospital, being treated the same way he treated the dogs. On the boat to hell with Ai, he gets surrounded by a swarm of dogs calling out to him.

I really thought this episode would be boring and the plot would be fairly stupid. That turned out (fortunately) not to be the case. The plot is predictable, but I enjoyed watching it anyway. They follow a similar formula of story advancement that they have been doing, but I find it most intriguing that Junko would have continued on with her life if Sekimoto hadn’t said anything. She probably wouldn’t have been happy for a while, but she would have eventually gotten over it. Sekimoto may have cleared her own conscience, but it leads to Junko sacrificing her soul in the afterlife. On top of that, Junko tries to find an alternative to using Ai’s powers even though it ultimately failed. I hope that future episodes show more characters trying to find a solution without pulling the string, and eventually feature a character that succeeds in solving their own problems without needing Enma Ai and company.
A combination of those two elements, along with generally better animation, contributes to why this is a good episode for me. Next week features another pair of girls (yay!), though it doesn’t seem like we’ll see someone not pulling the string quite just yet, if ever.

Artwork and animation was in episode1 style. (though still reused in that Ai scene)
Voice acting was wonderful. (was that Kozue?)
New music themes are a plus, but then all the old ones are reused once again. I hate that cue when Enma appears to the website user.

The punishment scene = wonderful this time, first person point of view was great, and Enma finally appears in a different manner. I’m happy about this one.

As for the story, another bad person goes to hell. At least the girls tried dealing with sensei. I liked it, but I wonder how it would work out if he was indeed an innocent vet.

Hope it doesnt go back to bullying again like ep3/1 for future episodes.

Kozue is the voice of Junko. Finding Kozue to act Junko is a good move IMHO, since they have lost their parent.

Losing a pet you kept for a long time, then you lost it for stupid reason of intended killing from vet is extremly hard to get through it.
Since you built an emtional relationship with it, it become a part of your family.

Would you accpet the fact that easily? I guess not. I just lost my near 2 decades cat who died from it’s age, even I knew it would gone in some day, it still taken me a hard time for it. I sympathy with Junko experience.

Even through there is a agency for vets. Chances are the vet can safety gone through with it, where justice with never be in the place.(Only vet knowns the medical stuff, there is an huge advantage for him)

This show is stressing mainly on where justice is not happening. Bad guys will always have the upper hands and weak guys will never have it.
You can find this common point in these 4 episodes.

It’s good to see that there’s a shift in the type of plotlines but then bullying is so prevalent these days. Hopefully there will be more plot development which explores the background of Enma Ai and her associates as these standalone episodes are starting to make me lose interest.

I concur with stevency and sorry to hear about your loss. Lost my 16 yrs old dog to a stroke earlier this year and i still can’t get over watching it die right in front of me while i was powerless to help him.

I’d be curious to see what would happen if more than one person wanted revenge on the same person (ex. boss that mistreats all his employees). Would all those people’s souls be sent to suffer in hell together for wanting the same thing? Maybe someone will try to pressure/trick another person into the pulling the string so that his/her soul is sacrificed instead of the others?

By the way, thanks for keeping (and updating) this blog. It keeps me from going crazy at work (from, you guessed it, a boss who mistreats his employees…I would be THIS close to putting in his name at the jigokutsuushin…lol).

haha, just watched episode 1 today..ermm..i noticed that the whoe group of death actually asked whether the bully was at fault, in which she denied and was sent to hell. izzit possible that if the person who was “cursed” actually repented..they could be saved and given a second chance?? enlighten me anyone..lol. I do haf a theory that the series will be more about enma ai later on..her story or background stuff…

I had stop the episode to gather myself after seeing Candy die…because my own dog was in a car accident, and by the time we could get to an emergency room, he passed on. He died a day before his fifth birthday.